Actually, they’re still where they’ve always been, but the tab disappeared when we changed web platforms… Sorry! Our error. They’re coming back, and here’s the link in the meantime….

I’ve heard there are publications regarding improved outcomes from guided imagery and other alternative approaches to health.

Can you direct me on how to find the articles?

Thank you,

Boston Nursing Student

Yes, BNS, you heard right. We do have hundreds and probably thousands of research archives of abstracts and citations for mind-body studies – on the efficacy of guided imagery, meditation, hypnosis, biofeedback, Reiki, and a variety of SAS (software as service or app) interventions.

And just as an FYI, we no longer use the term ‘Alternative’ for these approaches…. Nor ‘Complementary & Alternative’ or CAM, either. Both suggest that these should be used instead of conventional methods, and that’s not the case. The current and more accurate term has become “Integrative” approaches – conveying the idea that they can be used very easily and compatibly in conjunctionwith traditional medicine.

I hope you can find what you’re looking for in our vast archives. We will be creating a better search system for them as soon as we can.

A man asks Belleruth for insight on how guided imagery could reduce dependency on painkillers.

Dear Belleruth,

I would like an explanation of how a technique like guided imagery could take the place of opioids for pain. What are the mechanisms that make it so? I have a sister-in-law who says I can reduce my intake of pain killers for my back. I find it hard to believe, but I want to keep my mind open. Please explain. Thank you.

Henry J.

Hello, Henry.

Thanks for reaching out.

I think your sister-in-law is at least partially right. Guided imagery can be a safe, effective alternative to meds for some pain conditions, and at the very least, it can help reduce the dosage for most. It actually produces some natural (endogenous) biochemical changes in the bloodstream that can give opioids some serious competition.

But let me back up a bit first.

Pain, by definition, is a matter of perception, which means we can use guided imagery to interrupt and distract our awareness of it, which is the same as lowering its intensity. We can also reframe the experience of pain in a way that gives us a sense of mastery and agency over it.

My version of this kind of guided meditiation, , Ease Pain, provides imagery for both approaches. And Emmett Miller’s newly released guided hypnosis and imagery audio, Reducing & Relieving Pain, is a wonderfully effective and masterful example of how this works. It’s been re-recorded, re-mastered and re-mixed, and I’m proud and happy with the result. Check out the sound samples, and you’ll see what I mean.

There’s also a difference between chronic and acute pain, and the kind of guided imagery or hypnosis that would work best with each.

Guided imagery that’s designed to turn attention away from pain - provide a vacation from it, so to speak – is often a first choice when we’re dealing with chronic pain. This would be the imagery that takes us to a favorite time or place; or engenders natural feelings of lovingness and gratitude; or recalls some especially sweet, nourishing memories; or imagines mastery and success.

Needless to say, these types of uplifting, heart-based imaginings also release powerful endogenous opioids – serotonin and its mood-lifting, pain-reducing cousins. (That’s usually the first observation our vets will share after a guided imagery exercise – that their chronic headache, back ache or knee pain has vanished.)

The other kind of guided imagery is for the acute pain which demands our attention and resists distraction. In this case, imagery can guide us to deliberately and mindfully place the focus of our attention toward the pain, befriending it and embracing it.

This can be imagery that encourages us to adopt a warrior stance and dive into our pain - breathe into it and through it, soften around it and accept it. As I said, the reason this is the preferred option for acute pain, is because it’s not always so amenable to distraction. It’s what a lot of childbirth exercises are about.

There are no hard and fast rules about which approach is best. People have natural preferences that suit them best, regardless of the kind of pain or condition they’re dealing with. Most people develop their own combination of these two approaches.

Either way, anything that helps people cease and desist their automatic attempts to hold off pain or resist it, is going to help. The truth is, fighting with pain, tensing up around it, getting angry at it, or trying to hold it at bay has the paradoxical effect of intensifying it. (That’s also the essence of effective childbirth imagery – it helps you roll with the contractions by embracing them.)

And because guided imagery has long-established its clout for reducing anxiety, and because anxiety increases the perception of pain, we know that the calming, soothing and relaxing properties of guided imagery will further decrease pain.

Once people have a handle on getting their self-calming skills in place (because they’re going to be triggered a lot in the weeks and months to come), theEase Grief, Healing Trauma, and Heartbreakimagery can be extremely helpful - for weeks and months to come.

Other things you can recommend to your kids and families to help their bodies re-regulate from the extreme biochemical and mood swings they’re going to experience - from alarm and terror states to numbness and dissociation and back again - would be yoga, massage therapy, Reiki, Healing Touch, Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, EFT and other tapping protocols, and David Berceli’s Trauma Release Exercises.

Helping families get involved in activism and community support services also helps to remediate some of the horror and turn around the helpless feelings into a sense of empowerment.

And I know you know this, but I’ll say it anyway. In your role as pastor, empathic human, and good listener, you are going to be absorbing hideous images from the stories you’ll be hearing. They have a cumulative impact, and it would be unusual if you did not get some degree of secondary trauma.

So you will need to take extra good care of yourself, or you won’t last as a healer yourself. You will need to use these techniques yourself, take breaks, lean on your own support systems, and stay aware of your own needs.

Just as an aside: in the past, our company has donated guided imagery audios (and now streaming pages) for situations like this - it was cassettes for Columbine and 9/11, then pages for VCU, the shootings in Tucson (Gabby Gifford), Newtown, and others.

We would be happy to do this for Broward County as well, but we know it's pointless if the school leadership, counselors, and mental health professionals are not behind it, recommending it, and encouraging people to use it.

We also know that, after this level of national publicity, the people in charge get flooded with offers of services, products, and volunteers, some of which are more trouble than they're worth and create more problems than they solve. So these offers are met with necessary skepticism and caution.

If you or your colleagues introduce this idea to the professionals in charge, and reassure them of our track record and legitimacy with trauma, (US Army, Veterans Admin, Red Cross recovery & relief efforts, etc) we would be happy to create and donate a streaming page of unlimited relaxation audios and guided meditations for the kids, teachers and parents of Broward County.

(Some decision makers may also need to be reassured that these meditations are psychologically and research based, and do not compete with Christian or Bible-based principles.)

Let me know. I wish you the best in the difficult weeks and months ahead. I'm glad you reached out. Feel free to touch base in the weeks to come.

A therapist asks Belleruth about guided imagery for 2 different populations she works with: parents who lost a baby within the first year of life; and women who’ve survived childhood sexual abuse.

Dear Belleruth,

I facilitate a support group for parents who have lost their baby following a miscarriage, stillbirth, newborn death, termination for medical reasons, or any other loss within the first year of life. I also work with moms and couples individually.

Do you have guided imagery that is specifically for loss/death?

I do have your Healing Trauma CD, which is so gentle and loving, just what is called for. I plan to use it with young women who experienced childhood sexual abuse.

Do you have any advice about this?

Thank you for the beautiful work that you do!

Giselle

Dear Giselle,

That is beautiful and brave work that you do. Not everyone has an aptitude for sitting with such profound suffering.

Yes, we have guided imagery for healing grief. It would work well for the loss of a baby. You can find it here.

As to the young women survivors of childhood abuse, I would recommend starting with something like Relaxation & Wellness as a stepping stone meditation to lead up to the more emotionally evocative and intense imagery of Healing Trauma. Although the latter is arguably the most healing imagery we’ve got, it can be a bit much as an ‘opener’, certainly for survivors of recent trauma, and sometimes even for survivors of long-ago, seasoned, childhood trauma (although a large percentage of adult survivors of childhood abuse are very ready for it).

Also, just so you know, within MP3 format, we have 2 different options for the affirmations track on that trauma program – one has the original version, where the second to last affirmation that says “I know that I am held in the hands of God and I am perfectly, utterly safe.”

Most people really love that image. But some trauma survivors get really angry and upset at the God reference…. as in, ‘Where the heck was God when I was getting terrorized by my predatory stepfather?’And it can undo the peace and healing that was happening up to that point. As a result of that feedback, we’ve created a ‘God-free’ version that is also available digitally.

I hope that’s useful info. Take care of yourself and best of luck with all that you do,

My question has to do with a man at work who is meant for me, I knew it from the first time I saw him. How do I share this knowledge with him and allow him to see what I see?

Belleruth,

I just finished reading your book on intuition and I feel like you were talking to me personally. I relate to everything you describe. I am a 42 year old empath, who has been psychic all my life. I am blessed that my gift guides me in everything I do.

My question has to do with my deep knowing that a man at work is meant for me. I knew from the first time I saw him that he was my true soul mate, but he is very shy. He doesn’t respond to our connection. I believe his shyness keeps him at a distance.

How do I share this knowledge with him and allow him to see what I see? You talk in the book about how and when to share psychic information with others, but not regarding this situation. I would appreciate your advice. Alexandra P.

Answer:

Dear Alexandra,

Hmmm. You may not want to hear this, but I advise you to back off and reconsider from whence this intuitive wisdom is coming.

One of the things I say several times in the book, the result of the collective wisdom of those 43 working intuitive I interviewed, is that no one is correct 100% of the time - not even the most gifted and skillful psychic. ..and that our ‘knowing’ is most suspect when it reflects a personal wish or fear.

That’s why we need to understand our motives, be familiar with our personal filters, and deliberately second-guess our “insights” when they’re about what we most want or dread.

Bottom line: you could be projecting your wish for a relationship onto this shy guy and claiming it as ‘Truth’. This can turn into a form of interpersonal imperialism that goes something like this: You were meant for me and you love me, even if you don’t know it. Why? Because I say so and I’m psychic!

You see how circular this approach could be, and how potentially out of touch with reality it could take you.

So the recommendation in the book, in the chapter on General Cautions & Ethical Concerns, is that we are always obliged to question an ‘insight’ that happens to coincide with a wish or fear, and to seek external data that either confirms or invalidates that assumption.

And when in doubt, the recommendation is, do nothing. Otherwise you risk imposing your “stuff” on an unsuspecting person, who will not welcome having his boundaries invaded by being told how he really feels, whether he knows it or not.

So, my advice: back off. Try to reassess your assumptions, examining him objectively for any external signals of interest. Ask a friend at work what she thinks. See if he seeks you out in any way, on his own. Do you ever catch him staring at you when he thinks you’re not looking? Do his pupils dilate when he looks at you? Does he blush when he runs into you? Does he come up with reasons to approach you at work? In other words, do what all responsible intuitives do - get other sources of data to confirm or deny what you think you know.

And, as I say in the book, be willing to be wrong. Even if you very much don’t want to be - actually, especially then - that’s when it’s really important.

I hope this makes some sense to you, and I wish you the very best, with this fella or a different one.

Health Journeys' Meditation to Help with Dialysis was researched and written with the help of patients and staff from the Center for Dialysis Care in Cleveland, OH, and it's used by DaVita and Fresenius dialysis centers.

Dear Belleruth,What is the best guided imagery audio program for someone undergoing dialysis for failed kidneys?Thanks,Josephine

Hi, Josephine,We actually have a guided meditation created specifically to accompany dialysis. You can find it here.It's designed to ease discomfort, lower anxiety and fatigue, and reduce possible psychological side effects associated with hemodialysis, while increasing energy, hope and positive mood.Other titles of ours that can be alternated with this audio include our guided imagery meditation for staying Relaxed & Awake during Medical Procedures and our audio program Healthful Sleep, to encourage getting some restorative sleep during the procedure. I'd start with one to see if you like it and respond to it. Then, if you do, try some others to alternate with it, just for variety and to suit your mood and needs at the time.All best wishes,

Bellruth Naparstek

]]>design@emediacy.net (Belleruth Naparstek)Ask BelleruthMon, 29 Jan 2018 00:17:20 -0500Can I use guided imagery to make two lifestyle changes at the same time?http://blog.healthjourneys.com/ask-belleruth/can-i-use-guided-imagery-to-make-two-lifestyle-changes-at-the-same-time.html
http://blog.healthjourneys.com/ask-belleruth/can-i-use-guided-imagery-to-make-two-lifestyle-changes-at-the-same-time.html

I'm dealing with two things I want to change, and I don't have much time to spend listening to audio programs. Can you recommend guided imagery for both, and can I work on them at the same time?

Dear Belleruth,

I'm trying to find two things...one to reduce stress/anxiety and another to reduce dependency on alcohol. Can you do more than one topic at a time? Are there ones shorter than 60 minutes? I truly don't have time in a day to spend much more than 15 minutes if possible. Or is it really a requirement that you spend that much time for it to be effective?

When it says "60 minutes playing time", that's two different tracks, plus an intro - the guided imagery is about 25 minutes, and there's an affirmations track that's about the same.

You absolutely do not have to listen to the whole thing in order to benefit. If all you have is 10 minutes, take the 10. Over time, with repeated listening, it all sinks in, and the positive impact sneaks up on you; most people notice changes in attitude and behavior just sort of happening organically.

Also, the affirmations track can be played while doing other things, even driving, and you can stop and start anywhere.

Before my surgery, I was in a complete panic. My treatment team at Cancer Treatment Centers of America gave me your Successful Surgery CD, and it saved me. . .

Hello, Belleruth!

I hope you enjoyed a lovely holiday with family and friends!

Several years ago, I had a procedure at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Days before the scheduled surgery, I was in COMPLETE panic. When I called my CTCA team - and prepare to cancel the surgery - they apologized not having given me your CD (Successful Surgery). They overnighted it to me. It saved me.

I was calm and prepared. I came through the surgery and post op with incredible ease. The doctors even remarked how little I bled - I had a vascular tumor removed from my kidney. I distinctly recalled that imagery being a part of the meditation. Unbelievable. I could go on and on with how life changing the meditation was.

I have since purchased several of your guided imagery CDs and enjoy peace from each one.

The reason for my note is to ask would you consider an audio for teens undergoing extraction of their wisdom teeth or any other dental procedures. My son is scheduled in a week and I began to look for something similar to prep him. I will download Relaxed and Awake during Medical Procedures, but I wonder if something dental specific would be worthwhile.

Many thanks for your time.

Blessings for a healthy New Year.

Megan

Dear Megan,

Hello back, and thank you for the feedback - I'm delighted the imagery for surgery was a help. Really, when you think about it, it's a wonder that everybody facing surgery doesn't go into a full blown panic - after all, it's quite a bizarre thing to volunteer to sign up for a perfect stranger to slice you open with a knife at some convenient future date! :) .

You're not the first person to tell us that CTCA sent a patient to our guided imagery audios. I wonder, can you share which center this was? I know it was several years ago, but if you can remember any of the names of your treatment team, that would be a help too. We figure it's time to suggest to those excellent folks at CTCA that they might like their own download/streaming guided meditation page for their patients. Maybe one for the 'Getting Well' phase and another for the 'Staying Well' phase. (It would make it faster, simpler and easier for patients to access them, and at little cost to them.)

To answer your question about your son, I would have suggested the same guided imagery you already ordered - Relaxed & Awake during Medical Procedures. It pretty much covers what's needed there; another good one might be Bodhipaksa's Mindfulness Meditations for Teens - for providing an adolescent with general relaxation and support, not to mention developing perspective and calm, it can't be beat. I personally love this guy's work. You can check out a sample here:

I hope this helps. Best of luck to him for a quick and relatively easy procedure, and to all for a great year.

As I am new to the practice of recommending mind-body resources in a conventional medical setting, I was wondering if you had any guidance on how I might convince families to give it a try.

In my general pediatric practice, often in a well child office setting, I see so many children who suffer from excessive, generalized worries/anxiety in a range of different ages, starting from toddlerhood through adolescence.

I am eager to point them toward guided imagery, and now that I have some resources I can point them toward, I was wondering what you recommend to families/patients in terms of specific instructions on how to begin listening to guided imagery.

Although I realize that meditation and guided imagery should be a practice, parents often want to know how frequently, for what duration, and when they might expect to see positive "changes", etc.

Many times I find that families may not be convinced to try new modalities unless I offer somewhat concrete instructions, especially since they are not necessarily seeking this out in the setting of a routine well child visit.

Any general bits of wisdom based on your experience is appreciated.

Theresa Thomas

Dr. T,

Thanks for a great question.

I agree - most people are more comfortable and motivated if they have some 'rules of the road', to feel they're doing things right, and there is some structure involved (even if all they really have to do is get comfortable and press play).

And, by the way, there's nothing wrong with offering a meditative practice with very targeted goals, even if that's not considered 'spirutally pure' by some. A mindfulness practice that teaches us about being in the moment without judgment - no praise, no blame – is powerfully good for peace, perspective, compassion and kindness, opening spiritual gates and a greater sense of wholeness. But sometimes we do have desires for a certain, specific outcome that we judge to be in our best interest.

In fact, you could say guided imagery is often a matter of voting for a bunch of targeted outcomes with your imagination.. It can be aspirational and strategic, to help children with anxiety, night terrors, performance fears, scary procedures... that is perfectly legit.

I usually suggest people listen once or twice a day for starters - more if there's a need or desire for greater frequency. After a couple weeks, it gets pretty embedded - like a depth charge that's been dropped deep into the bodymind, that keeps on pinging positive, reassuring messages, whether the person is aware of it or not. (There is impact with or without awareness.)

Often the most effective way for parents to start is by listening along with the child as they're falling asleep, to set them up for some rich, nourishing sleep, or when waking up, to set them up for a calm day. These are naturally conducive times for an immersive technique, because the brain is in a trance zone upon waking or falling asleep anyway. But kids and teens are good at this any time of day, and anxious kids even more so.

By listening with their child, parents are also affording them some healthy, non-demanding time, where there's a shared experience and effortless closeness, without any of the daily push-pull that normally goes on between parents and kids during the day. And that might be the biggest pay-off of all. For many families under stress, this becomes a special time-out that everyone looks forward to.

I also suggest that the children use the same hand positioning each time they listen, (hands folded over the stomach or midriff, for instance – something easily replicable in public) so the kid can have an 'anchor' or conditioning cue to use during the day, when there's a need for some quick self-calming.

In the altered state, this cue gets set up pretty rapidly, and it's a great tool for an anxious child.

I just learned that my dad, who has dementia, has been getting more and more agitated and sleepless at night. Got anything that might calm him?

Dear Belleruth,

My dad has had a form of dementia for a long time. He does not recognize my brother or me, and his mind is a jumble. We have him safe and well cared for in a special facility.

I recently learned from a staff member that he was getting more and more agitated and sleepless during the night. This makes him even more tired and confused during the day.

I would like suggestions for what might help him, unless you feel it is pointless. Do you have any ideas about what might reach him?

Thanks.

Jack’s Son

Dear J.S.

Thanks for the question. It’s definitely not pointless - some things are worth a try.

You may already being doing this, but if you aren’t, you might want to bring him his favorite music from an important time in his past. Sometimes words set to music with powerful associations with love get through the fog.

Calming aromas might do it too – a dab of essential oils on a pillow can have a soothing impact. The nose remembers what the neo-cortex has forgotten – after all, smell is connected to the oldest and most primitive part of the brain. So you’ve got a shot with an aromatherapy intervention. You could bring the staff some soothing essential oils that can be sprayed on his pillow or applied to his skin before bedtime, or when he wakes up.

Therapeutic massage might have a soothing impact for similar reasons – touch can reach where words no longer can, bypassing the thinking brain and going in right through the skin.

Our guided imagery for Healthful Sleep might help, too – a calming, reassuring voice tone, pacing, and music can get through to the primitive brain even when the meaning of the words don’t register.

So I suppose all this boils down to a general strategy of appealing to his senses to help him calm down. Any of these things is worth a shot.